Our Deepest Sympathies as you Mourn your Loss and our Salute as you Celebrate Compañera Vilma’s Remarkable Life

GABRIELANational Alliance of Women’s Organizations in the Philippines

Our Deepest Sympathies as you Mourn your Loss and our Salute as you Celebrate Compañera Vilma’s Remarkable Life
June 19, 2007

We are deeply saddened to hear the news about the death of compañera Vilma Espin. GABRIELA national alliance of women’s organizations in the Philippines sends our deepest sympathies as you mourn your loss and celebrate compañera Vilma’s remarkable life as the founding president of the Cuban Women’s Federation leading the fight for women’s emancipation and children’s rights, the leader and outstanding soldier of the urban-based Frank País Eastern Front and a hero of the Cuban struggle for liberation.

It came as a great shock to hear of compañera Vilma’s illness and her death. She will be greatly missed by everybody who knew her, particularly those who, like us, had the opportunity to have met her.

We first met compañera Vilma at the Beijing Conference in China. We met her again in the 13th Congress of Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF) in Beirut,Lebanon in 2002 and in the WIDF Direction Committee Conference in Vietnam in 2004 where we learned of her long work at the WIDF beginning as a young woman representating the Federation of Cuban Women, that she help established in August 1960 in support of the Cuban people’s struggle for liberation.

We salute compañera Vilma, one of the pillars of the Cuban women’s struggle to eliminate obstacles to the full participation of the Cuban women into the economic, political, social and cultural life of the country towards women’s emancipation. Compañera Vilma has blended her voice to billions of women around the world who denounce neoliberal globalization that has resulted to inequalities, economic violence, labor and social discrimination and extreme poverty for women in many parts of the world.

Compañera Vilma’s life is a great contribution to the struggle of the Cuban women, the Cuban people and the women of the world.